Casino Capitalism

[TJ_98370]

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The first link is a really good 60 Minutes feature IMO. Steve Kroft further investigates CDS's. The case is made that what is happening now is more similar to the "Panic of 1907" than any other major event. The Commodity and Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act?) is also mentioned.
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Video and transcript -
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The following is a historical overview of Glass-Steagall-
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[Charles Dean]

It was the Financial Services Modernization act that effectively repealed Glass-Steagal. The Comodity Futures Modernization Act had to do with trading comodities and energy and made it so they could be traded without oversight.

This was the main reason for the "enron loophole" as well as the broad speculation of oil futures, which was likely one of the reasons for last years dramatic increase in crude oil. There was legislation attached to the farm bill that closed this up, which is thought to have been the cause for oil prices to drop.

It also made for CDS' to be unregulated, which is of course one of the biggest reasons for our current collapse.

[Charles Dean]

One of the best things about this 60 minutes stories is that it calls it out for what it is. Gambling on the stock market.

[TJ_98370]

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Thanks for the clarification, Charles.
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It seems Mr. Phil Gramm was at his best with his involvement in co-sponsoring these two bills. As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, this is what Mr. Gramm said on December 15, 2000:

S 11866-67

Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, today I am proud to add my voice in support of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. This legislation represents the end product of work that began in S. 2697, which Senator LUGAR and I introduced on June 8. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 completes the work of last year's financial services modernization law, bringing our financial regulation in line with the rapid pace of developments in the global marketplace. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 will now allow new and important financial products -- single stock futures -- to be sold in America. It protects financial institutions from over-regulation, and provides legal certainty for the $60 trillion market in swaps...
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Mr. President, enactment of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 will be noted as a major achievement by the 106th Congress. Taken together with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the work of this Congress will be seen as a watershed, where we turned away from the outmoded, Depression-era approach to financial regulation and adopted a framework that will position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century.
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